COLDWATER TOWNSHIP — The Coldwater Township Planning Commission has rejected a special use permit to house homeless at 315 N. Fiske Road.

The measure failed 5-0.

With wall-to-wall neighbors filling the township hall in protest, the vote killed the plan by Damascus Road Ministries to turn a 10,000-square foot facility into a 40-bed shelter with a commercial kitchen.

Also on the land owned by Dan "The Beast" Severn is a house with six bedrooms that houses a wrestling school. It is a non-conforming use in the R-2 zone and was there before the township created its zoning ordinance.

A church would have been allowed by special use permit, and Randy Leviton of Damascus Road claimed the shelter was part of a church.

After the vote to reject the use for the homeless shelter, Leviton withdraw his request for the church.

Retired Circuit Judge Michael Cherry started the hearing by agreeing there was a need for transitional services in the community — but he told the commission, "I believe it is totally inappropriate and unfair to grant a special use permit for a facility to 40 men in need, including those with criminal backgrounds who were previously incarcerated or have substance abuse issues, in our quiet, residential neighborhood."

He also mentioned Leviton’s past record, adding he had "no reason to doubt" Leviton’s own rehabilitation.

Others agreed with Cherry, adding concern about increased traffic and the large number of children in the neighborhood.

The planning commission separated the issue of church and shelter after township attorney John Lohrstorfer told the planning commission the issue was not whether a homeless shelter was appropriate for a church, but whether it was appropriate for the R-2 zoning limited to single-family homes.

"At best, I believe it falls into C-2 General business zoning which permits a hotel or motel," Lohrstrofer said.

The township could not take an application to change the zoning to allow the facility since its master plan calls for only single-family residences in the Fiske Road area south of the railroad. To rezone otherwise would be "spot zoning."